SALT LAKE CITY — Governor Spencer Cox said an emergency drought declaration is coming soon.
"We will be doing that," the governor told reporters at his monthly news conference on PBS. "There's a drought committee that will be meeting next week just to talk about what would be in that drought declaration and to talk about the timing, but I suspect that will be coming fairly soon."
The entire state of Utah is now in some form of drought. So far, San Juan County's commission is the only one to have passed a drought declaration. Gov. Cox warned that reservoirs will be taxed this year, the Great Salt Lake did not rise as much as he had hoped and there are efforts to try to save the Colorado River system from collapse.
The Utah Farm Bureau is among those who is pushing the governor and Utah State Legislature for drought declarations to free up funds.
"This drought is five times worse than our worst drought," Spencer Gibbons, the CEO of the Utah Farm Bureau, told FOX 13 News on Thursday. "This is a doozy and we’re starting to see impacts across the state. Farmers are making hard choices. Do I sell cattle? What crops do I plant, if I can plant anything?"
But the governor has to time it strategically because of something that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then-Governor Gary Herbert issued numerous emergency health orders which angered some in the legislature. So they passed a law that limited emergency declarations to only 30 days (and in retaliation, Gov. Herbert issued new ones every 30 days). After that? The legislature must meet in a special session to vote to extend it.
Obviously, droughts last longer than 30 days. The pandemic-era rule tripped up a drought declaration last year.
"I have no problem with the legislature getting involved. There's more buy-in at the state level," Gov. Cox said Thursday. "If they wanted to give us more time, 60 or 90 days, I think that would be appropriate. But it's not a problem if we need to get them involved to extend the drought declaration."
So far, Republican legislative leaders say they have not discussed whether to modify the law to accommodate long-running disasters like a drought.
Meanwhile, the governor said with drought will come a rough wildfire season.
"As a direct result of the water situation, we know that the wildfire season will be especially dangerous this year," he said. "Despite recent rains in parts of the state, which we're grateful for, the overall picture is one of dry vegetation."
On Thursday, Gov. Cox met with executives from TNT Fireworks to discuss wildfire prevention and fireworks safety. Gov. Cox told reporters he is hoping for educational materials to be distributed to people warning of wildfire dangers where people purchase fireworks.
TNT Fireworks' president, Carson Anderson, told FOX 13 News after the meeting that they will be offering educational materials to consumers.
"We have a very robust and early safety education campaign," he said. "It’s all focused on staying safe, staying legal and acting responsibly."
